Get Paid to Play Video Games!https://getpaidtoplay.today A Journey to Financial Independence through Video Games Fri, 12 Apr 2019 20:23:39 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.1.1Don’t Ever Regret Your Spending. I Certainly Didn’t. + BONUS: Statue Unboxing VODhttps://getpaidtoplay.today/dont-ever-regret-your-spending-i-certainly-didnt-bonus-statue-unboxing-vod/ https://getpaidtoplay.today/dont-ever-regret-your-spending-i-certainly-didnt-bonus-statue-unboxing-vod/#commentsSat, 06 Apr 2019 13:17:27 +0000The last month I’ve been scrambling to pay off a rather pricey, yet expected expense. I pre-ordered an amazing set of Solid Snake statues made by First 4 Figures almost two years back, which turned out to be nearly $2000 and it finally arrived! The actual panic wasn’t really about me not having enough money, it was more about reshuffling my liquid stash to fully pay it off (without being forced to withdraw from my investments…More on that in a bit.). Well, that and my whole reserves is gone. It turned out to be some great streaming material too, as I decided to do an Unboxing Stream.

So why am I talking about expensive statues? Am I just flexing about how I can afford it? Not really. What I would like to say is: no matter how expensive an item is, don’t feel bad for buying it.

Life is too short to limit yourself to be like a monk.

But it is also too short to enslave yourself to the costly whims of pleasure and social expectations.

Changing the Mindset

I ask myself these questions whenever I am about to make a purchase:

Can I afford it in liquid cash right now? (ie: I actually have the funds in my bank.)

What can the item/service offer me in value?

Will I be able to see a continuous return in value as time goes on?

In the words of Robert Kiyosaki, writer of Rich Dad, Poor Dad: “Questions open the mind. Statements close the mind.”

Asking these questions make you think. Saying that I can’t afford it makes me unable to think of ways to improve my current situation. Every single item you buy should always be a process of prioritization.

I always prioritize in making growth, whether in making me better a better person or making my finances bigger. After that, it’s about things that make my life easier which is a higher priority than my own enjoyment. I’m the kind of person who will find joy in min-maxing. That is, in layman’s terms, minimizing the amount of effort I put into to get a large amount of gains. I try to optimize everything that I do, whether it be finances, getting to work or even trying to maximize my build for PvP in Guild Wars 2. Lastly, if I buy this item, it should be able to provide me whatever function it is set to do for a long time. This is why I hate buying disposables, I end up throwing it out after I finish using them. (Food and gross things are exceptions.)

If any of the above three questions aren’t met, I usually don’t buy it. Unless I want to indulge myself sometimes. If you’re in the business of content creation, you have the nice bonus of indulging yourself and investing into your content stream! (At least in this niche anyway.)

Can I afford it?

Be honest with yourself. If the thing you’re buying means you need to pull the card out, stop and think.

Rule #1 of being financially smart: Pay yourself.

Rule #2 of being financially smart: Don’t make more debt if you have to.

If you know you can’t afford it now, don’t buy it! If you say you can pay it off later, especially if you put it on the card, that’s fine. Make sure you pay off the entire balance of the card before your next statement! This way you can get those sweet reward points and not owe the card company a single cent! This rule tends to go for most type of loans (with the exception of mortgages, but I won’t cover that here).

Interest rates are only getting higher, so be aware that paying minimum payments are not enough anymore! You have to tackle debt aggressively otherwise it will drain your funds even more.

Wait, why did we delve into rule #2 first before rule #1?

Aside from credit cards and debt draining your resources, one has to make a living and to invest and grow. I like to focus on keeping more money in your pocket, so that means I like reduce the amount of deductions pulling from my cash flow.

However, all of those deductions mean nothing if you actually have no money in your stash! Always stash away a bit of your cash from your paycheck every month. You can use that later, maybe for a purchase or better yet, an investment of some sort. Reaching FIRE is pretty easy, but you have to be really honest with yourself and be prepared to use a lot of self-discipline.

If you decided to use your money anyway (after determining that you won’t be in debt), let’s question the value.

What value do I see?

If I can increase my money stash, then I’ll do it in a heartbeat. This can range from:

more cash flow (investments!)

as a content creator: more content = more value

increase skill set and knowledge through education

increase influence = more potential customers

If it makes my life easier, or if it greatly entertains me, then I have to weigh out the pros and cons. This is entirely subjective and based on what your priorities and/or values are.

Let’s take a car for example:

Pros:

conveniently get around

longer range

carry more stuff

faster

look increasingly badass (depends on vehicle of choice)

Cons:

pollute the environment

makes me lazy

depreciates in value

big freakin’ price tag!

become a weapon of mass destruction for everyone around me and get jailed for it

there are as many stupid drivers as there are stupid pedestrians/cyclists

No, this is not Grand Theft Auto

Seriously, don’t do this while driving.

Even after evaluating that I had more negative points than positive, I found that my most negative points still overpower the positive ones (after all, you can have less points but they strongly resonate with you!). With this in mind, I would not buy a car in the near future.

Use your best judgement here. There is no right or wrong answer, but you have to think really hard and be honest if you need it or not. Own up to your decision and proceed.

Can I keep on getting the value out of it?

If you can get more of the same wonderful thing, will you jump up and down for it? I know I would.

If I had to throw it out right after, I’d be a bit more hesitant to buy it. It feels like a waste.

It means I have to buy it again at the same price. That really bites; I would rather use it as much as I an before I have to dispose it.

Well, that’s not really true for games though. Video games nowadays tend to be varying about its quality whether if it’s in the story or in the gameplay. The amount of hours played don’t mean anything anymore; you can keep on playing a crappy game like it’s a terrible job. A really expensive Triple A title could perform abysmally in comparison to a $5 Indie Game (I’m looking at you Anthem…)

Caveat: These impulsive buys of questionable value can be indulged upon once in a while. It’s like getting coffee from Starbucks! It’s super expensive to get coffee there! If you can get the same value by doing something else (or buying something that can let you enjoy it at a lesser cost), like making your own coffee. Think about what you’re going to get and what your value would be.

Do my Snake statues fit the bill?

My wonderful Solid Snake statues are definitely a single purchase. They are definitely oversized and overpriced paperweights. However to me, I get a lot of entertainment and personal value for the inclusion of these awesome statues to my video game den.

Does it really fit my three question criteria? Definitely yes. It’s questionable in some places, but I really don’t have to justify the purchase to anyone, or really regret it.

Remember Rule #1 of being financially smart? I broke that. Sort of.

I paid myself already, as I have already set up automatic payments to my investments (this way, I don’t forget!). Ideally, I wanted to invest into myself more (like about 60% of my paycheck), but on that day when I pre-ordered it, I decided to splurge.

I reshuffled all of my funds to make sure I paid the card in full. I knew these things are a prime collectors’ item when I do decide to sell the statues, but really the real value is making it an amazing part of my video game den. The statues are so well made that I can continuously look at the statue and admire the high quality craftsmanship behind it.

A nice bonus is that it has provided some additional content for my streaming channel!

]]>https://getpaidtoplay.today/dont-ever-regret-your-spending-i-certainly-didnt-bonus-statue-unboxing-vod/feed/2Online Gaming Cash Shops are a Money Drain!https://getpaidtoplay.today/online-gaming-cash-shops-are-a-money-drain/ https://getpaidtoplay.today/online-gaming-cash-shops-are-a-money-drain/#commentsTue, 19 Feb 2019 15:42:24 +0000http://getpaidtoplay.today/online-gaming-cash-shops-are-a-money-drain/So I got into a discussion with one of my favorite YouTubers, The Quartering (also check him out on Twitter!) who often calls out a lot of bullshit in video games. His tweet got me thinking about my spending habit back when I was young and naive. Of course, I know much better now.

Dear Hardcore Maplestory Players,

I have been hearing about some insane time gates around the black mage? liberating this weapon requires a MINIMUM of 7 MONTHS? Is this correct?

This conversation made me think of all of my favorite free to play MMORPGs back in the day and that they had cash shops to give players who wanted to get a tiny edge. However, in recent times I’ve noticed that they’re everywhere, even in single player titles that you had to pay full price for! That’s pretty anti-consumer! I’ve seen many players fall for this trap and we should instead use this money elsewhere. I’m also very guilty of this as well, so don’t worry and don’t feel bad. I am a firm believer of educating people so I hope you guys won’t fall into this trap like I did! 🙂

Types of Cash Shops

So there are different kinds of cash shops, they can affect your gameplay in any shape or form, but it is an additional unneeded expense. It works like this: you buy in-game currency (usually a premium kind) with real money, and then you buy virtual goods with it on a store. The difference is what these goods do.

Sometimes you can then exchange these goods for actual in-game currency that you earn while playing the game. For example, in Black Desert Online, I can buy costumes using pearls, which is the game’s premium currency. I can then sell these costumes on the auction house, which are bought using silver from other players, the game’s actual in-game currency. This can go into pay-to-win category because you can exchange these premium goods for services or goods that can help in your progression. Or another case, you can buy these goods in exchange for another player’s help for progression.

And even worse, there are bots or farming accounts made to flood a market with cheap commodities just for the purpose of selling in-game currency with real money. It is illegal in many games, and for good reason. If left rampant, this can destroy an economy of a multiplayer online game. Not only that, this is super sketchy; these third parties can steal your identity!

However, I am not here to discuss the last two paragraphs. This is all based on how a community/game masters work together to tackle the problem. At best, it is a mere annoyance, at its worst it will completely drive legitimate players away. I will be focusing on what is done in-game and officially done by the developers.

Buying Cosmetics

This is the easiest to find and also least damaging to the game’s community. This will stroke a player’s ego because many people love to customize their characters. It can be done in-game, or through an external store, like Square Enix has done for Final Fantasy XIV:

These are mostly harmless, it just makes your characters look cool. There are also services in there that you can buy to even change what your character looks fundamentally, like race, skin color, hair, ears, etc. Square Enix, for example, also has exclusives that you can only buy in their store only; it’s not a big deal unless you’re a huge collector of cosmetics.

The worst this can be is when they lock cosmetics away in loot boxes, which you can buy (keys, or boxes for more chances) in the store themselves. Team Fortress 2 and Overwatch are great examples of this. It is a very frustrating experience, I must note.

Paying for Convenience

In exchange for your money, you can get goodies or services that can speed up or accelerate your progress in a game. Or in some other cases, just simply get what you want in exchange right away. Like in Warframe:

Normally in Warframe, you can obtain Warframes (the playable characters you play as) just by playing the game. The game does give enough hints to help you get your desired frame. However, the game also allows you to instantly buy the Warframe using the game’s premium currency, Platinum, which otherwise can take you at least 5 days to build.

Other games, like Black Desert Online allow you to buy convenient stuff like extra additional inventory slots, and even cost-saving items for your attempts at upgrade. People like to argue that this is pay to win, because you are progressing faster money-wise than other players who don’t have the means of dumping money into the game. It really isn’t because it doesn’t affect them or the economy directly. It would be akin to buying things that would heavily influence your ranking on a chart that doesn’t feature any rewards for being in the top 20 for example.

Now be Damned – Paying to Win

This is the kicker. The big one. The one thing that a lot of gamers hate. Here, you can purchase goods that no one will ever get outside of the store and you will get a big boost to your progression. Essentially, you will directly affect other players to get goods that will push that gap between you and another player who does not buy into the system. If you go against a player who doesn’t have these exclusive items, that few stat points can be life or death for someone in a player-vs-player situation.

For example, in Elsword you can buy a costume that can give you a massive boost to stats not normally obtainable in playing.

Not only that, if it is possible to sell those costumes, like in Black Desert Online, you can potentially destroy the economy by selling the costumes for in-game currency to players that can help your progression. Do this multiple times, and you can potentially earn silver much faster than a person normally farming for silver in-game (because you have multiple players buying your costumes at x rate).

But there is a more sinister way of enticing players to get their money. First, I must present exhibits A, B and C from Elsword.

In these types of games, the game creates an artificial problem in the game. Usually this happens with abysmal upgrade success rates. Getting to a certain point is fine; it’s just becoming competitive can be a problem, which a lot of people are trying to strive for when trying to clear content. Since the game needs you to upgrade to clear content and trying to upgrade to that point, the game is developed to frustrate people with diminishing chances and punishing them for failing. To monetize, they help players provide a way to save their progress.

Here’s how Elsword creates this problem. Your first few upgrade levels are somewhat guaranteed; the chances are very high and you’re not likely to fail. Once you get into +10 though, your chances have been drastically slashed to 30%, or even lower! While this is a problem in the community where some players can exclude other players for not having the right gear level, the power spike from the last 9 levels to +10 is statistically strong. There is no way around it; you need to have +10 gear to be competitive. What makes it worse is that once you start failing, you are being punished for failing. This is a common theme in Asian MMORPGs. If you fail, at best nothing happens. Sometimes you can lose your chance to upgrade, but in some games there are extreme chances of your weapon being destroyed or lose your upgrading progress. Considering the amount of time and in-game currency it takes to get the right weapon, with the right stats, and even the materials, this can be very daunting to attempt. This creates a demand to save your progress, only for players who spend money at the cash shop.

Here, the game has these items in the cash shop to prevent progress loss and even weapon destruction. Other games also feature items that will unlock further weapon potentials! Even still, this does not guarantee your success, this only preserves your progress! Your rate of success stays the same despite buying items to conserve your progress in the shop. This is how they encourage people who want to do really well at the game to buy these items and those who don’t are forever damned not to be competitive. It’s a vicious cycle.

Many gamers do not like this kind of progression as it inflates the worth of the currency in comparison to the actual value of the product you want to buy in-game. Weird that this can be analyzed even though it is a video game.

Cash shops are just a huge drain in your wallet

Cash shops give no value to the player (unless you really just want to deck out your character in cool). It also sucks when you find that you no longer play the game you bought those items from or if the game goes under, you get nothing out of it. It’s a wasted investment.

Unless you want to genuinely support the developer for making such an awesome game, there really is no need to buy anything from cash shops. Your money is better off working for you. Invest this money, watch it grow and the sooner you’ll play video games just because you can.

What do you think about cash shops? Are you fine with just supporting your favorite developer? Respond in the comments below!

]]>https://getpaidtoplay.today/online-gaming-cash-shops-are-a-money-drain/feed/2How to Stream to Twitch, DLive AND Mixer At the Same Time! + Some quick instructions to restream with Mixer FTL!https://getpaidtoplay.today/how-to-stream-to-twitch-dlive-and-mixer-some-quick-instructions-to-restream-with-mixer-ftl/ https://getpaidtoplay.today/how-to-stream-to-twitch-dlive-and-mixer-some-quick-instructions-to-restream-with-mixer-ftl/#commentsSun, 10 Feb 2019 23:58:20 +0000So anyone starting out should always try to reach to more people. This is why I wholly disagree with Twitch’s Affiliate/Partner program because once you reach that, you are “restricted” to stream only on Twitch on your on days. Not good! But, if you’re starting out, reaching as many people as possible is your best bet, so why not cover a lot of the popular platforms?

How do I Stream to Multiple Platforms?

Fortunately, in the recent years, developers have come up with ways for streamers to reach as large of an audience it can. These are called restreamers, with some of the most popular being Restream.io and castr.io. What you do is you go over there, sign up!

Now here’s the thing, here’s Restream’s pricing details, but since we’re financially frugal, we will always pick the free option (unless you need to Stream to Facebook and Steam, then you would want to stream to Castr).

How to set up Restream

1) Registration Once you go on the website, you’re greeted by a registration screen. How convenient. Put in your particulars and hit submit. You will have to verify your email but aside from that, you’re now able to start!

2) Setting up your channels

Now that you’re registered, you will have a blank dashboard. This step will require you to have accounts on each of the streaming platforms you want to stream on. Now the following screen will have some channels already linked, but the steps are still the same for all platforms you want to add.

Clicking on the giant orange button that says “+ Add Channel” will lead you to a screen with all the platforms available on Restream.

As you can see, all the available channels that you can do on Restream is available right here, including the paid channels you can link to (see pricing above). Just click one and it’ll tell you if you want to connect. If you have more than one channel on the same platform and restream to both, you will have to pay for that. For now, I’m going to use Mixer as an example for connecting.

So after clicking on your desired channel, you now have to allow Restream to access your details on that platform. Fortunately they gave you easy access to do by clicking on Connect Mixer (and it will prompt you to accept Restream after you log into mixer) or do it manually. There are instructions if you follow the prompt.

Now do this for all the platforms you want to connect to.

3) Setting up your Social Media

Back on the Dashboard, you want to click on Social Alerts. This will let Restream to push out any message you want out to say that you’re live! Pretty handy, isn’t it? Here are your options:

You can choose to ping to Discord, Twitter and Facebook. All you have to do is connect your pages/accounts and you can have Restream send it out for you automatically!

For Discord, you also need to add what channel you want to Restream to yell your notifications at. As you can see above, Restream is outputting these updates right at a channel called “#action-stations” on my Discord Channel. No web hooks needed.

You can even customize your message text when it is even sent out! I have set to tweet out my channels and people that I want to retweet it too. In the Streamer world, it’s best to tweet it to retweet Twitters for the channels you are streaming to.

4) Getting ready to go Live!

Now that you’re all set up, it’s time to go live! Back on your Dashboard, look to your right. This is where you will set up your stream credentials as well as where you’re coming from. We are going to assume you know how to get your Stream keys from your main platform. Here’s the place you need to put your stream credentials:

You need to set the server you are stream from (although you can set it automatically… However, there’s a caveat. More on this later). Take the stream key that you have earlier and put it in the place where it says Stream Key. For this you need to select all of that and paste it. It should overwrite what was in the spot earlier. Restream will pull from your main stream (Twitch, whatever) and broadcasts it to other places!

Now you’re free to press start stream on your streaming program and get going!

How to Restream with Castr

1) Registration This is what you are greeted to by Castr when you first land on their page. They tend to like to give you a nice presentation as to why it’s good. Anyway, you can register by placing your credentials in the sign up spot below. Logging in is not so obvious though. You need to go to this URL: https://castr.io/signin Here’s their pricing scheme if you want to upgrade (scroll down their main page for more info):

The thing about Castr is that you can stream on Facebook, Steam and Mixer FTL with no problems. Restream requires you to pay for Facebook and you need to do a bit of tweaking to stream on Mixer FTL.

But again, we’re frugal gamers so we’re obviously going to keep it free. 🙂 (You can always upgrade later if you need to)

2) Creating your channel

Clicking on the “Add Stream” button will give you two options. Since we’re restreaming, pick the first option. You will then enter your nearest server and put in your Stream name.

3) Add channels

This is your dashboard. Hit “Add Platform” button and you will see this:

4) Time to Push! Now back to your Dashboard, we now need to start setting which one to restream from. I am going to use Mixer yet again, because I have to cover Mixer again for another mini-step.

So for Castr to restream, it has to pick where it’s drawing from. Make sure you’re on the “Pull” setting, which is highlighted in pink. Put in your stream URL in the pull source. Pay attention to the red arrow near the top of the image. When you are streaming from DLive for example, head into your dashboard and put in your stream URL into that spot. Make sure you turn off DLive (or wherever you’re pulling from). You don’t want to push to where you’re streaming from otherwise the stream won’t work. Green and right means on, which means you are pushing to those channels.

If you want to stream from Mixer FTL, pay attention to the red arrow near the bottom of the screen. Click on the Get Mixer Pull URL and enter your Mixer username when prompted. Make sure Mixer is off and white and away you go!

You can now stream to your heart’s content. 😀

Bonus! How to Stream Mixer FTL on Restream

Mixer features FTL streaming, which means less delay between you the streamer and the viewer. This increases interactivity for everyone! If you have problems trying to stream Mixer FTL on Castr, Restream is capable of doing so. It’s quite a workaround but it’s there. First you need to open up Command Prompt or Command Line. And do the following:

Pay attention to the highlighted bits. The first highlight is the command you must type in command prompt to get Restream’s servers.

But before you do, you need to find your Mixer Ingest server. Find the one you are closest to. It should match or be as close to the server your Restream server is from. Make a line specifically for Restream like this:

(IP from above) (Mixer Ingest server here)

It should look like this:

Save and close the hosts file and head back onto your Restream Dashboard. You want to pick your RTMP server close to the server saw earlier. Copy your Stream Key and open up your streaming program. I will be using StreamLabs to show you how.

Under stream, you want to pick Mixer FTL, and pick the server closest to the Restream server from earlier. Copy your Restream Stream Key and put it under your Stream Key on your streaming platform. (Key is censored but given a generic structure for ease) It should look like this:

re_xxxxxxx_ecxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Now you need to edit this by removing “re_” and replace the _ between ec and the first set of xs with a “-“. It should look like this:

xxxxxxx-ecxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Save your settings and test your stream. You should now be able to have minimum delay between your viewers on all platforms!

Time to increase your audience!

I hope this helps you guys reach a wider audience not limited to just your primary zone! It can be a juggle trying to meet up with your viewers and try to interact with them but this means you can reach more people! Good luck out there!

]]>https://getpaidtoplay.today/how-to-stream-to-twitch-dlive-and-mixer-some-quick-instructions-to-restream-with-mixer-ftl/feed/4Move over Twitch, DLive is coming to the top!https://getpaidtoplay.today/move-over-twitch-dlive-is-coming-to-the-top/ https://getpaidtoplay.today/move-over-twitch-dlive-is-coming-to-the-top/#commentsThu, 07 Feb 2019 23:12:09 +0000http://getpaidtoplay.today/move-over-twitch-dlive-is-coming-to-the-top/Being a small-time streamer, I realized that I was competing with millions of streamers on Twitch. Not only that, it’s a lonely world out there. You’re consistently trying to talk to other streamers, and you realize these guys have nothing for you. It’s a dog-eat-dog world out there.

Of course, no one owes you anything, you need to show value… But let’s not worry about that for now. We should talk about a platform that helps not only you, the streamer, but also help your viewers as well! The platform I’m about to talk about is small, upcoming, but it is unique, welcoming and primed to receive new streamers to the fray!

You’re more likely to find people with a smaller community and a very welcoming one. If you’ve been following me on Twitter, you’ve probably seen me advocating and promoting DLive.

HERE WE GO!!!!

What is DLive?

In short, DLive is another streaming platform. But what this entire post will talk about is what sets it apart from the rest. I find that it is absolutely focused on community and rewarding them for being engaged.

Right from the CEO of DLive, Charles Wayn, he mentions what DLive is as well as its mission in this community post. What really stood out for me was this exact quote about the mission right here:

The mission of DLive is to create a community-owned live streaming platform and empower creators and users through a revolutionary rewards system.

This right here is what got me. I was looking for a way to contribute to the community as well as somehow providing value to anyone who comes right my way. I like it for that reason. Everyone, may they be the content creator, but also the viewers can contribute to the community at hand. Everyone likes helping and this incentivizes it!

What does DLive do for you, the Streamer?

DLive operates on the crypto-currency, LINO Blockchain. LINO is based around creating content value and it is decentralized. As long, you create something that someone values (and that someone is a real person behind the screen), you will get paid. On the other side, if someone likes your content, they can genuinely give you a tip, a gift or a subscription in return.

So as mentioned in the aforementioned post, DLive does not take any cuts from any of your earnings (be it subscription or a gift). That’s pretty sweet! You actually get 90.1% of the earnings! The other 9.9% goes towards a pool that other people have invested in the platform. I’ll get to that in a bit. Here’s an image to easily illustrate this (courtesy of DLive):

Now, they also mentioned that you get a nice bonus just for streaming! This happens 7 days after you finish a stream! Isn’t that nice, you get actually get paid right away just to stream yourself playing video games! Exactly what we are about! This bonus is based on how many people who donated to your stream as well as their reputation. It also depends on your rank as a stream during that period. Again, here’s another image to convey how this works thanks to DLive:

See that chest right on the bottom of the screen? There’s a little progress bar that increases as you continue watch the streamer. It also goes faster as you continue to chat with the streamer. The rate is about 1 message per minute, which prevents people from constantly spamming the chat in order to get that bar grow faster. Once you click on it, you open a chest to get your points!

Now, I know you only get 1 or 2 LINO point every time but it does add up! Just by passively watching the Streamer you can eventually earn currency to support them! Drop them a lemon, ice cream, diamonds or even a Ninjaghini! (Ninja + Lamborghini… Get it?) You can even use this currency to subscribe to them if they are partnered with DLive! You don’t need to even buy with real currency, but the option is always there if you log into your LINO account. Just make sure you keep track of your password and your recovery phrase; LINO can’t help you if you lose it!

What’s this about investing into the platform?

So aside from all of these features making it interesting for us end users, how does the company get money if they’re not getting any money from it? From the Charles’ message for anyone new to DLive, he even mentions how they earn money. DLive is built on LINO Blockchain, which is I have mentioned before, a decentralized and autonomous content ecosystem. Since there is new content created every day, new LINO points are generated. The amount of points is calculated based on network calculation, around 0.2% – 9.9% annually. These points are distributed to infrastructure, developers on DLive, validators and the users who contribute to the network. This is a completely sustainable system, focused on building and rewarding an engaged community.

Now here’s where we come in. We are the users who contribute to the community, and thus we are obligated to help out. Well, not really, but if you like what you see here, you might as well want to see them succeed too! They already scratched our backs, and I’m inclined to scratch theirs once I’m able to afford enough LINO to invest into the points. This is done by locking my LINO points in.

Locking your points mean that you are now officially invested into the platform. You earn rewards based on the consumption of all content for the previous day. (Not just yours, but everyone’s consumption!) These are liquid, meaning you can use them to immediately gift or transfer.

Now this is a weird way of looking at it, but it is best thought of as an investment. You use your time (or money, if you want to accelerate this) to earn enough LINO to lock in the right amount of points in. Right now, as of this post, the conversion is $11.00 USD to get 1000 LINO points. You need 1000 LINO points to lock in. When someone sends a gift, you earn 9.9% of that gift based on your contribution.

This means that once more people can contribute to the Locked LINO points fund, and more people get onto the streaming platform, this means we get more out of it! It is an investment especially as more people get word of it and start joining! It doesn’t matter if you’re just a viewer or a content creator on DLive, anyone can contribute to the Locked LINO Points system!

So what do you think about DLive?

DLive is pretty awesome and it is the upcoming underdog to attack Twitch’s throne as being the top streaming platform. Everyone is very welcoming and very helpful! I’m seeing a lot of streamers who see the Tweets from Twitter over at @OfficialDLive who are considering making the switch! If you’re another streamer looking to stream another platform, don’t hesitate! In fact, you can stream at Twitch, Mixer and DLive at the same time (as long, you’re not restricted by your affiliate/partner program) using Restream! DLive has officially partnered with Restream!

I don’t think there’s any reason for anyone who is looking to start to stream to go on Twitch when you have an amazing platform over at DLive.

If you want to follow DLive, I’ve already linked their Twitter account, but you can also join the Discord Community as well! Definitely check out the platform, you won’t regret it.

]]>https://getpaidtoplay.today/move-over-twitch-dlive-is-coming-to-the-top/feed/6Controversy at the Epic Games Store! Exclusivity Deals Are Just Bullshithttps://getpaidtoplay.today/controversy-at-the-epic-games-store-exclusivity-deals-are-just-bullshit/ https://getpaidtoplay.today/controversy-at-the-epic-games-store-exclusivity-deals-are-just-bullshit/#commentsSat, 02 Feb 2019 03:39:49 +0000Recently the publisher for the long awaited Metro Exodus, Deep Silver has announced that its PC release will be exclusive for one year to the Epic Games Store, as part of an agreement between the publisher and the Fortnite developer, Epic Games.

I, like many other gamers out there, were not happy. Even for those of us who had pre-ordered the game long before its actual release on February 15, 2019, this was akin to a rug being pulled right under our feet. At least both Deep Silver and Steam are gracious enough to let us keep our purchases.

What is Epic Games doing for Developers?

So here is how Epic helps Developers out:

I actually like that developers get more of a cut and I completely agree that they should seek out those kinds of deals; this means that they get to put the extra revenue back into their games and make them better! Big win for everyone!

It’s actually really good, because this also means that they can charge us for a lower price if we went to Epic rather than Steam. When it was available on Steam, we were charged $60 just to pre-order the game! Now here’s Epic’s offering:

If someone told me this earlier, I’d be ok with this… But it’s still many levels of wrong.

Epic Can’t Compete with Steam

I downloaded the Epic Games Store a few weeks ago in order to download a few free games featured on it. I’m just a bit disappointed by the lack of features. Ok, that’s a lie. Epic currently doesn’t have features that I consider very vital. Being able to access my games and continue off where I was at from different platforms (from desktop to laptop, for example) is pretty important to me. Sharing games with my closest friends and family is really important to me as well. I was able to discover Slay the Spire from my fiance because he was willing to share his library with me; I shortly bought the game after. I think being able to share games is a great way for a game to reach a wider audience (after all, that’s what mostly a lot of indie developers want to do). But these are not what I think is vital for a game distribution platform, although they are still quite important.

Maybe it’s a good thing that it doesn’t show us how many hours I played a game…

The fact that the Epic Games Store lack user reviews, content sharing, wish lists (a huge one for me!) and a place for users to congregate is a huge epic fail. User reviews allow gamers to share their opinion if a game is worth their money or not and it is a huge driving factor in how gamers spend on their games. (It’s always nice to rely on feedback, but it can be prone to abuse thanks to review bombing in both directions.) A wish list is very important to keep users informed of an opportunity to get their game at a discounted rate! I use this all the time, especially since I’m super frugal about my spending. Also, the lack of forums for sharing content or asking for help is rather disappointing because gamers want to share content, their feelings and even ask for help. There’s no real place to do that on the Epic Games store.

I’m already peeved about the lack of features and I absolutely don’t want to have another place to download my games from. I am, after all, inherently lazy. If Epic actually had some cool things and features, I might consider using it, but it really doesn’t, aside from the free offerings. What really makes me mad is how they steal developers away.

Exclusivity is a Problem

While I’m perfectly fine with Epic offering better deals for developers, depending on their contract, Epic may have forced them (developers or publishers) into a binding agreement which can affect distribution. By locking games into a certain platform, this is actually really bad for the developers, who want to reach a wider audience (and thus, more sales) and for us, the consumers.

A Brief History in Exclusives

Games were always limited by the platform. So it came as no surprise when gaming started to become more popular, so too were the number of platforms. Starting in the 90s, we were seeing fierce competition between Nintendo’s Super Nintendo and Sega’s Sega Genesis. There were games that were available to both consoles, like Mortal Kombat and Double Dragon, but each had their exclusives such as The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and Sonic the Hedgehog. Entering the 3D gaming era, there was fierce competition between Nintendo’s Nintendo 64 and Sony’s PlayStation consoles, which means both companies now have to fight for software developers to publish on their console. Sony did not have the reputation that Nintendo had at the time, being that they exclusively made other electronics at the time and that Nintendo have their own brand published exclusively on their platform, so they really fought hard to secure deals with third party developers. For example, Final Fantasy developers Square (now Square Enix) used to publish on Nintendo consoles, but now they develop and publish for Sony. Due to these under the table deals, one can surmise that the amount of fanboyism between the consoles can be called the “Console Wars”.

Note that I did not even mention a peep about PC games. PC gaming is unique and thanks to the internet, it is very flexible. Because of that, PC gaming is very wide and can cover many things, ranging from typical CD programs to being played right from your browser! (This was one of the reasons why I went to from console gaming to PC gaming.)

Anyway, by locking a game into exclusivity, you have to run into the risk of seeing if your platform can reach the intended audience. There is a reason why that despite both EA and Ubisoft having their own original platforms to launch their games from, they also sell their games on Steam (while still linking their platform, of course!). Steam commands quite a monopoly over the PC gaming audience and for good reason too. If another game distribution platform (like GOG Galaxy, which features DRM-free downloads) offers really sweet things in return, Steam would be forced to improve their own platform as a result.

What does this mean for us?

As consumers, we have to be wary of this crap all the time. We’ve already seen it in the console market. If I see a game I want from a particular publisher (say, Super Mario Odyssey), I would be forced to pick up a Nintendo Switch if I don’t have one already. Consoles are bloody expensive, as you can see for the Nintendo Switch. (Affiliate link here. If you do buy something, I will get something in return. More at my Affiliate Disclosure. Also, I encourage you to search Amazon for the other consoles too!)

The fact that Epic Games chose to go down this path is rather disappointing but it raises a lot of eyebrows. This creates a false funnel that gives Epic Games nothing to go on once their Fortnite money runs out (not saying that it would, it is still a very popular game), which in turn does not create any value for us.

Consider this: because of its exclusivity deals, games like Metro Exodus can be charged at any amount Epic (or the developer/publisher) decides on! That’s because there are no competitors to force the pricing of the product! That’s not all either! We are also at the whim of the distributor because we may not be able to meet certain requirements for refund, if they offer any at all. After all, a good example of this is Bethesda’s Fallout 76, launched exclusively on their own platform where they refused to issue out a refund after their disastrous launch.

My take on the situation

This is just me, but I’m a peeved gamer. As I’ve said before, this is completely bullshit and I’m just calling them out on it. I don’t like being limited in my choices of buying games (especially if it allows me to shop around for awesome deals) and I think a bit of competition is a good thing. (Steam needs it anyway!) However, the way that Epic Games is going into creating that competition is the wrong way of creating that competition.

I won’t be buying from Epic Games anytime soon. (But because I’m a stickler for free games, I’ll pick up the free offerings that Epic posts anyway!) What’s your take? Reply in the comments below!

]]>https://getpaidtoplay.today/controversy-at-the-epic-games-store-exclusivity-deals-are-just-bullshit/feed/65 Super Easy Steps to Create My Own Website + a tiny mental checklisthttps://getpaidtoplay.today/5-super-easy-steps-to-create-my-own-website-a-tiny-mental-checklist/ https://getpaidtoplay.today/5-super-easy-steps-to-create-my-own-website-a-tiny-mental-checklist/#commentsThu, 31 Jan 2019 02:14:33 +0000http://getpaidtoplay.today/5-super-easy-steps-to-create-my-own-website-a-tiny-mental-checklist/So you’ve finally decided to make your business around video games. Good job. I knew you could do it. 🙂 The first step is always hardest, they always say. Now, you’re telling me that you need somewhere to put all your content in. The easiest for this is a place where you have complete control on your content. This, my friends in the digital world, is a website. Unlike YouTube, Twitch and Facebook, you can control what you say, what you want to put and even when you want to put stuff. Your content is your baby, you should really take care of it yourself!

So, let’s get started!

Wait a minute! Don’t read the next few steps until you do this!

Oh snap, I nearly forgot! Right now, I’m going to give you a very tiny mental checklist that you want to keep in mind as you read this post. This is something you really need to do before you even go ahead and open up a website and start putting your stuff out there!

The teeny tiny mental checklist

Who are you serving?

How can I solve their problems?

Get Started!

An Explanation of the Tiny Mental Checklist

The reason why I gave you the checklist is that I want to help you achieve your dreams faster. We’re going to optimize and streamline as much as we can throughout the process. While I’m not a subject matter expert, it is definitely the mindset that you’re going to find in common with anyone who is going give you advice on getting started on your new website. It is also the same mindset that you would want to adapt as you start to open your doors and push out content like no tomorrow.

Who am I serving?

People are always looking for solutions to their problems. We’re here to solve those problems. If people like what you give, they’re more likely to give you money! This is a very easy way of thinking of the rules laid out here for us. So starting now, let’s think of what kind of people you want to help.

For example, maybe you’re an expert raider in World of Warcraft Mythic +. You know all the strategies, tricks and mechanics to clear a fight in record time. You already know there’s a group of people out there who wants to get better at raiding, so here’s your audience to cater to. If you can define that, you can get an audience of like-minded people to follow behind.

How can I solve their problems?

Once you know who you want to cater to, it’s time to find out what their problems are and how to solve them. The thing is, you need to know your audience pretty well to understand what they are looking for. The good news is, since we do play video games, by focusing on a game you’re really good at (or a variety of games you’re good at), you can find what your audience likes, dislikes, and even problems they have at a game. By checking out forums and interacting with the community by various means (Reddit, Discord, Facebook groups, etc.) you can get a better grasp on their opinions and even find valuable information.

Once you find their gripes, your job is now to solve them. 😀 By helping your audience, they feel happy and they might pay it back to you!

Get started!

This is actually the most important point of this checklist. Getting started. If you don’t start, you’ll never get it done. If you don’t start, you won’t know what’s ahead of you. If you won’t start, those people won’t get their solutions and everyone feels sad. No one likes sad people. This is the hardest step of them all, but it is the most important.

Now To Actually get Started

Always keep the checklist in mind. It’s small, but very important!

Step 1: Do the checklist.

Ok, I know, this sounds like a cop-out. I’m not kidding though; do the checklist. It will be very important throughout the lifetime of your new video game business. It’s going to guide you in how to approach your website and the content you want to put out. I would suggest doing at least 3-4 answers per question on the checklist. Don’t take too long, though! Remember the last point of the checklist!

Step 2: Find a Web host provider.

So now that you got an idea out, you now need to find a place to put your content on. You have two options. Go free, or pay someone to do it for you.

Going free

Now, going free is a very valid option but you might have trouble down the road if you’re relying on people to find you through search engines like Google. They don’t tend to rank very well on search listings. You can take a look at my favorite food blog, FoodWishes. Every recipe listed there I couldn’t find on Google; the only way I could find him was on YouTube!

Websites with free hosting tend to have their domain names attached to them and not only look goofy and not catchy, the providers have some partial control over your website. If you decide to go this route, you may not even be allowed to monetize your website (through ads, for example) at all! Despite this, there are many free providers, and you can switch later on if you feel you are ready to invest into a paid website domain. You will want to utilize your other social media like Pinterest, Facebook, and YouTube to drive traffic to your website. Examples: Blogger, Wix, and WordPress.com

Paying for Your Web host and Domain

Definitely the more expensive option you can look for. Aside from hosting, you actually also have to buy a domain name. Remember the checklist? By defining your answers, you can actually word your website in a catchy, creative way that tells your audience what you’re here for! Also, you can scale once your website grows and you have more content to share. And not only that, you have full control of all your content on the website! That’s pretty awesome!

… Except, you don’t know where to find your hosting. Here, I’ll provide you with some affiliate links. Now, these links will help you get some nice deals for what you need at no cost to you. Note: The links here provide you a discounted rate for your first year, so definitely shop around if being on a budget is your highest priority after your first year. If you decide to click on them and buy, I’ll get something in return for me recommending you their business. Again, I won’t recommend anything that I don’t like. More over at my Affiliate Disclosure.

Reddit seems to highly recommend SiteGround. A lot.

So, my recommendation is SiteGround. While I will honestly say I don’t use it myself, I have done a lot of extensive research on two of the most popular web hosts. So why would I recommend SiteGround over the others? While my favorite financial bloggers (who are very inspirational for this blog, by the way 😉 ), Mr. Money Mustache and Frugalwoods recommend BlueHost, this doesn’t mean I follow their recommendations blindly. As always, I will recommend doing extensive research. What led me to this conclusion was that after research, I found that SiteGround was faster, was more reliable and have excellent customer service. BlueHost provides a better starter package and is cheaper overall, which could be a better choice if you prefer to be on a budget. I would personally go with the better network and customer service as I like my content handled by people who care and have consistent up time.

You’re wondering why I would recommend a paid service over a free one, I would think of this as an investment for your future. You’re building a revenue stream; of course you need to spend some money to make the money work for you!

Step 3: Create your Website

Now that you have your website, it’s time to install WordPress and other doodads. Fortunately the two hosts I recommended in the last step, has provided you a 1-click install button for WordPress, although you can choose to use other Content Manager Systems (CMS) if you are familiar with it. Pick ONE theme and stick with it. Don’t spend too much time trying to make your website look perfect. You can fix that later. It’s actually more important to start pushing your content immediately.

Step 4: Put your content out!

Now that you have a working website, it’s time to place content! You can place videos of your latest speed run, written guides to finally beat Bahamut, pictures of your favorite game waifu… Anything! As long you follow the mental checklist, you can determine what you want to put out next. I will highly recommend that you start talking about yourself and look for templates about Private Policy and legal jargon like Affiliate Linking for your first few pages just to cover your hide. Again, let the mental checklist help you determine what you want to make next. Remember to research whatever you’re going to put out! By providing people great quality content, you will get people to come back for your stuff. If you need to play video games for research, go do that!

Step 5: Start monetizing your content!

It will take a while for you to see any traffic come to your website. Expect at least 3-6 months of hard work before you see any traffic, let alone a dime. During this time you want to continue pushing your content, optimizing your website and talking to people/joining affiliate programs for content to promote. Remember that you want to help people and by recommending products that you love to help others out, everyone wins: you win by getting a cut of the sales of the product you promoted, the company you promoted has gained a customer and the customer wins by getting something that they need for their particular problem! Remember, the checklist is very important in driving your content forward!

Do you still need more help?

As I have mentioned before, I’m not a subject matter expert on this subject. I’m just good at video games and I’m still figuring out the best way of making gaming a career that I be proud of. Rather than try to reinvent the wheel, I will recommend a place that has helped me realize that I can make money on any particular niche. (Definition: A special area of the market. So, that’s definable by you!) This place is called Wealthy Affiliate. (Again, another affiliate link. But I’m seriously recommending this if you want to seriously accelerate your progress bar.)

I’ll cover in depth why I decided to go with these guys later, but I’ll give you a quick run down on what you get:

You get some pretty nice hosting, which is fast, secure, reliable and has awesome tech support! (but it costs more if you go premium: $49 USD per month!)

You have a free membership with a 7-day trial to experience what premium is about. (Don’t worry, you still have free hosting, but if you want the paid hosting, it’s going to cost you the above.)

Based on the mental checklist I mentioned earlier, you get lessons on answering those questions above as well as a call to action

You are surrounded by an awesome community

The community also has user-created lessons for you to take on

Because of the first point, you are able to apply them right away as you continue to learn!

Let me tell you one thing, I personally think that this is a worthwhile investment. I learn by doing and follow a good tutorial while doing so. (I mean, that’s how I learned how to be really good at Photoshop.) I feel like this is one of the times I would actually spend money to accelerate my learning (and getting the good information now) rather than stumble upon old and outdated (mis)information that can actually cost me more time and money (in the long run) while struggling to achieve my goals.

I’m also really active in the community, so if you don’t feel comfortable asking in Discord, I can help you out over there as well. (It’s also easier for us; I can directly link you to posts there.) You also have an awesome community of like-minded entrepreneurs with various backgrounds at your back. 🙂 Definitely come and join me if you want some ideas to bounce at.

Conclusion

Again, congratulations on the decision of making video games your business. 🙂 I hope these tools will be very helpful in your first few steps towards making a killing as an independent entrepreneur in the video gaming industry. I wish you well in your success!

]]>https://getpaidtoplay.today/5-super-easy-steps-to-create-my-own-website-a-tiny-mental-checklist/feed/8Believe it or Not! Gamers need to be Healthy!https://getpaidtoplay.today/believe-it-or-not-gamers-need-to-be-healthy/ https://getpaidtoplay.today/believe-it-or-not-gamers-need-to-be-healthy/#commentsSat, 26 Jan 2019 18:17:08 +0000Remember all the memes with fat D.Va eating Dorito Chips and Mountain Dew? Or how about the fat neck-bearded fedora nerd? All of these are the prime images of a gamer.

The truth is that gamers come in many shapes and colors. Now the unfortunate thing is that many people are fat (at least in North America). (I’m not fat-shaming. Just stating the truth.) This is the sad reality with the kind of lifestyle we tend to follow; sedentary, unhealthy and expensive consumerism.

How did we get there in the first place?

I’ll tell you a bit of a story. I mostly stayed at home, didn’t go out, didn’t even work out… I was a lonely hermit living in my room. Not only that, I also lived on a diet of instant ramen, beer and KD. I spent at least 20 hours a week playing video games, studying, more video games… But mostly studying. It wasn’t until I went to work that summer I found that one of my favorite blue shirts didn’t fit me anymore that I realized I needed to make a change.

But Murasa, this doesn’t tell me how we got to this sad depressing state!

Ok, so if you didn’t draw any conclusions from my story, here are some key factors:

I didn’t really move my body much

My diet is bloody awful

I was actually stuck in a state where I was doing nothing

Because of the above, no progress = depression!

The fact that I was sedentary, with no movement in mind, body and spirit was what caused me to become fat. I know, I’m getting all philosophical here, but really, it’s how I got fat. That summer, I was 160 lbs! I’m only 5’2″! That actually made me overweight!

The thing here is that we all need to realize that we are not taking care of ourselves. At that point in my life, I had let myself go. What made it worse was that I didn’t do anything about it for the longest time. We all go through that mode in life (several times, actually) where we just feel stuck in a rut and it’s just utter despair.

There are a lot of consequences to being fat.

Being fat can be costly!

Did you know that being fat costs us money?

Because of my need to feel whole again, I bought a lot of things that (like my terrible diet, for example) satisfied some of my cravings. Video games also filled a hole in my social and mental state. I was stuck studying a subject that I saw no way out of and it sucked my soul away. Since I ate a lot of bad foods and got into a vegetative state between two tedious things (I think the games I got into were time-consuming… It got into a grind I didn’t want to do), I had no energy to move. The cycle repeated itself when I just did nothing to fix it.

When I started doing research to make myself become better, I soon realized that I have more reasons to become more healthy. I wanted to show my granny that I was a functioning living person, I also realized that being fat is also really bad for the health. My family is plagued with obesity and there are many health complications for being fat. If I end up toeing a medical condition just because of my gait, there was something wrong.

Also, being fat really does increase that stigma we have for being gamers. We don’t look really good and pretty depressing. Fat people are the epitome of gamers, nerds and geeks. We were the losers in the social circle, even though gaming is now becoming very mainstream.

How we can fix it

There are several ways of doing fixing our problem. We should always strive to have a happy and balanced life. Believe it or not, folks, even too much gaming can be bad for you!

So how do we get more fit?

Your diet is the biggest factor in this. 80% of your success in being fit lies within your diet. You can significantly control how much and what goes in your body and it is significantly harder to work that off. While food can be very costly, you can still be frugal about it and still eat healthily. Remember that you are the one in control!

Working out is the other 20%. It doesn’t matter what you do to work out; the point is that you must give it your all, not half-ass it, and more importantly start! Because I’m more goal oriented and I like seeing numbers go up, I take up weightlifting. Hell, you can go into running, hiking and even joining your local muggle Quidditch League!

Some people have even incorporated video games into their workouts! There are mobile applications, modifications and even gadgets that let you play games as you run! (Really, button mashing while on an elliptical is a good way of working out. 😉 ) Heck, even playing Dance Dance Revolution can work you up a sweat!

Lots of good reasons to be nice and fit!

As I have mentioned before, being fit and healthy will make you happier and can give you some purpose in life. It can also remove the stigma that you’re a depressing, anti-social, no-lifer hiding in your mom’s basement. And not only that, your mind, body and even your wallet is going to thank you for not being an overweight slob.

To take it to the next level, if you also want to compete with the best competitive players, you have to start living like one. (Note: don’t do it if you’re not ready or willing to be competitive. This can be expensive!) In a recent study from German Sports University, eSports Athletes are real athletes! They need to have a clear mind, lightning speed reflexes (comes from practice!) and a healthy heart to compete at such a high level. Yes, it’s actually more complex than mashing keys.

It’s easier to live a happy, balanced life

As I have said before, it is much easier to live a happy and balanced life. Doing too much of one thing can be very bad. Having too much pizza is bad. Sitting still to play video games all day is bad. Not doing anything about your poor state of health is bad. All of these things that can lead to being unhealthy and fat.

If you’re happy and healthy, you can make better sound decisions about yourself, which includes saving for your future. Being happy and healthy can lead to a lifestyle that you want to have full control over, even if it’s just playing video games. Gamers can come in many shapes and sizes, but it is much more about being happy and whole. That’s what we try to aspire to and inspire.

Being a healthy gamer is a pretty good deal, if you ask me.

]]>https://getpaidtoplay.today/believe-it-or-not-gamers-need-to-be-healthy/feed/24Easily the Best Streaming Software on Twitch – StreamLabs OBShttps://getpaidtoplay.today/easily-the-best-streaming-software-on-twitch-streamlabs-obs/ https://getpaidtoplay.today/easily-the-best-streaming-software-on-twitch-streamlabs-obs/#commentsThu, 24 Jan 2019 02:42:36 +0000So you want to start streaming. You don’t know where to start. You have all of these questions so you start looking. Well, I’m here to help. I completely understand, this is actually pretty overwhelming. I know, because I went through the same process myself. The setup is not overly complicated but nowadays you are bombarded with options and things you need to get before you start your first stream. Let’s get started on your career as a streamer!

So, what’s the first thing you need to get first? You need a streaming program to broadcast whatever you’re streaming and there’s so many options! Look no further, I have a solution for you.

Note: This contains an affiliate link where if you click on my link I may or may not get something in return. I will always recommend something that I use and I hope that it will help you. More info over at my affiliate disclosure.

So what is Streamlabs OBS? It is a streaming software that has a lot of features in it. Of course some of these are essential: Stream Chat (you talk to your viewers), video preview, video editor, recent events (whoever decided to follow, donated and even subscribe!), stream labels, a chat bot (to help with channel moderation) and a dashboard all in one app. That’s right, you have everything you need in one window.

Not only that, StreamLabs is free! Since we are financially savvy gamers, we don’t want to spend too much trying to build our streaming career! If you check out StreamLab’s own web page, you can see some top Streamers on Twitch use it! This includes Ninja, summit1g and pokimane. This is a very trusted streaming platform and you would be very wise to use the software that the best are using.

Easily Customize Your Stream With a Single Click

What made it stand out from other streaming programs like XSplit and OBS is how easy it is to implement themes, widgets and other custom features into your stream from your window. You can easily change what an alert will show on your Alert Box Widget right from the dashboard! It even provides user-made content for your use right on the Themes page. Before you had to find all of these things from the world wide web and then create browser sources in your favorite streaming software in order to show it off.

A huge selection of free themes and install in one click!

Believe me, this was really frustrating when I first started a couple of years back on OBS. I also found out about XSplit and tried it out; I liked it but it was very cost prohibitive for me to justify using it. StreamLabs has made it so super easy for me that I never looked back. (I’m also inherently lazy, and I would prefer to spend my time getting good at what I want to do rather than spend time trying to make it perfect on all the wrong things.)

The More Technical Details That Give You the Edge

I’m still small, but this is where I can see who subbed, followed or donated recently.

StreamLabs features multiple windows like StreamLabels, Stream Chat, Dashboard/video editing in one window. Before you needed to have multiple windows open (most of these in costly memory hogs that are browsers!) which can eat up RAM and CPU which can cause performance issues while you’re gaming! Not only that, I hate having multiple windows at once while I’m streaming because I have to ALT-Tab cycle all of them to get to the window I want and do what I need to do. Having it in one window makes it super convenient! The layout is super simple to use and easy to access.

Another huge feature is allowing you to use your mobile device as a remote control on StreamLabs! You can easily change scenes with a push of a button on your phone.

StreamLabs boasts that you can still have awesome video quality while streaming by using x264 and Nvenc encoder settings. This was heavily inspired by how Netflix’s AI compresses video scene by scene. They truly have optimized x264 by using AI to compress video scenes. This is incredibly good for people who have weak CPU, low bitrates or both. I’m not really good at explaining this, so I’ll just redirect you to StreamLab’s post about it.

I could artificially have a sound gate for my microphone!

It even has noise gain and suppression! People don’t like it when they hear background noises when you stream and can be a huge turn off. This is an important feature that you want to have while you’re streaming! You don’t want to scare away potential viewers just because they can overhear your neighbor doing… stuff… just because you have thin walls!

For anyone who used OBS are fed up with the multitude of windows they would have to deal with in OBS and don’t mind missing out on some features that StreamLabs has missed out on, you can easily upload your setup into StreamLabs.

What Comes in Features comes in Inflexibility

If you’re an Old School Streamer looking to see why you should switch, well this is your moment to shine and spit on all of us StreamLabs users. A lot of these people swear by the functionality that StreamLabs OBS seem to lack, such as being able to precisely transform your overlays according to your Stream. Another feature that was missing until recently was Studio Mode, which allowed the streamer to edit and preview whatever changes they make live before pushing it onto the viewers. StreamLabs OBS is still missing a lot of features but is consistently improving and adding in more features. It will eventually overcome some tried and true competition.

OBS, despite how complicated it is for newer streamers, can be a lot more powerful and even more efficient on your machine due to how it is consistently built and improved on by the multitude of users using it. This is because of the nature of it being an open source program. StreamLabs OBS is also open sourced, but it isn’t currently up to par to what OBS can provide. If you think you can take the extra time to utilize OBS’s flexibility there are many guides out there for users who are willing to learn.

Who is StreamLabs For?

StreamLabs OBS is definitely for any newcomer to the scene of streaming. It boasts ease of use and putting together a lot of essentials for streamers who are fed up with the complications of having multiple windows at once to manage their stream. There are also statistics provided in your dashboard about who followed you, how much was donated to you, and a large application store to pick up any stream theme and widget themes in a single click! I highly recommend this product to anyone who is serious about streaming and many top streamers on Twitch agree that this is the most reliable and easily one of the best streaming software on Twitch!

Go download Streamlabs OBS if you’re serious about streaming. I can’t wait to see your channel grow! Good luck out there!

]]>https://getpaidtoplay.today/easily-the-best-streaming-software-on-twitch-streamlabs-obs/feed/10I Hate Loot Boxes and You Should Too. Here’s Why.https://getpaidtoplay.today/i-hate-loot-boxes-and-you-should-too-heres-why/ https://getpaidtoplay.today/i-hate-loot-boxes-and-you-should-too-heres-why/#commentsFri, 18 Jan 2019 20:30:23 +0000Electronic Arts’ Star Wars Battlefront 2 sparked a controversy that landed on the front page of Reddit and garnered the attention of at least 15 European countries and one American State. This got me thinking about recent events and how it has made me think about how this affected my enjoyment in gaming.

Remember that our goal is to reach financial independence and be happy. I remember falling in the loot box trap and how I almost spiraled into a non-stop gambling spree. I want to help you guys not do what I did.

What are loot boxes?

Loot boxes are digital boxes that you open and you can randomly get cool prizes from it. The process of obtaining (or opening them) depends on the game, but it usually comes down to spending some actual real money to obtain one or a way to open one.

This wasn’t apparent before, but thanks to regulations in China and Japan, game developers now have to show gamers what their chances of getting their elusive prizes are. Let’s take a look at an example of these odds from a mobile game called Eternal Senia:

These are ridiculous odds!

Unbelievable, eh? Not only that, these are just for types of cards alone! I can scroll even further and it will outline what the chances are for each card in the pool! So if I wanted to obtain a specific card, I only have a chance as low as 0.04% (after some rounding) of getting that card!

So let’s do some math. Let’s say you open 100 boxes. These boxes have the same rolls each time you open, which means that if you open another box after this current one, that box will have the same 0.04% chance of getting that card you want as this one.

Chances of you not getting your card when you open your box: 1 – (0.04/100) = 0.9996

Yep, these are really bad chances. Not only that these loot boxes have fancy celebratory animations that congratulate you for getting your nice loot! People love to be congratulated! They like to see the fancy things! We’re all prone to it, even though the screen just told you got crap! It’s frankly addictive!

Why is this a trap?

I finally got a cool hat. But it’s BUBBLES. D:

When loot boxes first came out on Team Fortress 2, I was lured by the idea of having cool hats. And not just any cool hat either. It was a cool hat with cool effects. I’m a sucker for cosmetics and I’m not the only one. Lots of gamers love to customize everything about their game, which includes their characters. I spent almost $200 trying to get a hat with cool effects! I did get one eventually, but I was never happy, because I didn’t get that cool effect I wanted. This was made before the mandatory laws for developers to show all of their loot chances! I had no idea what I was going into! It wasn’t pure disappointment either though, I showed off my hats a lot while I was playing, but I could never get rid of that sour feeling. I will say this that this was a bad investment.

While cosmetics aren’t too bad on that scale, as it did not affect gameplay (unless your computer is garbage) there are many games with loot boxes that featured gameplay changing elements. These are very apparent in a lot of games developed in Asian countries, like Korea and Japan (whose marketed audience is in the mobile industry). Usually these features grant you a huge advantage if you get one of the rarest findings offered in the game. This really ticked off many players because it erased the value and concept of progression in the game. This encouraged a system where players with big wallets (affectionately called “whales”) would just throw money at the developers to eventually get that rare game-breaking drop. Star Wars Battlefront 2 has gotten this phenomena exposed to the whole world.

Also, loot boxes of today tend to have these nice flashy graphics with slot like mechanics that allowed you to watch how close your desired loot escapes your clutches. Here’s the shocking truth of this: your prize is already predetermined. Most likely you are already set to lose.

I absolutely hate them.

I hate, hate, hate loot boxes. People don’t understand why I hate them so I shall outline it here.

I hate that when I play against someone who has won something that I wanted, I go into a green fit of envy. I can’t get my prize otherwise either by earning it, or the not so bad option, buying it directly.

I get angry when I get wrecked in a game that has interesting and deep mechanics and I found out my opponent has a piece of gear that I cannot get elsewhere. My hard work in progression is ruined because someone has cheesed through certain spots that I still have trouble with because of a game-breaking piece of gear.

I abhor the idea of buying my way through progression because in a game that doesn’t feature player versus player has a turtle-like pace of manually grinding to the next stage. I am encouraged to buy and if I wanted to progress, I either have to rely on outrageous luck to win (if I refuse to buy) or buy for a significantly better chance of winning.

I don’t like how these flashy graphics get my hopes up for something that already tells me I lost. I don’t like losing. Or rather, I don’t like paying money for something to tell me that I lost. Every purchase you do should tell you that you’re a winner and a worthy prize at that.

What can you do to avoid this?

It’s actually much simpler than you think. Just don’t buy them. For some people it’s already harder than it sounds.

If you’re already stuck in the trap, I have to urge you to pull out. Think of it this way: loot boxes are very much like gambling at a slot machine. It is actually frightening that you can get trapped into a loop that you will never win and never get your investment back. The fact that there are mechanics like this in a hobby meant for children is absolutely terrifying. If you imagine yourself like pulling a slot machine, maybe that can help you. Remember this: if you try to win your money’s worth back, you’ll never get it back. You lost those dollars in the slot machine. It’s better to spend them to make them work for you.

Now that the government is getting involved, I also highly urge you to talk to your local representative and ask them what they are doing about this. Get active and involved. Implore that future generations are getting hooked into gambling and they don’t know it. (Ok, really, we’re looking out for ourselves here, but hey helping others not falling into this trap is rather convincing to get others to rally to our cause!)

Loot boxes are the bane of any financially savvy gamer.

It is hard to believe that we are being introduced to such a costly consumable, especially to young children who are coming to follow in our footsteps! For any concerned gamer parent out there, it’s best to keep these out of their hands. I wanted you guys to know my story as to why I hate loot boxes. I fell into the trap of gambling for nothing and it has cost me a lot. There are some people who spent over $10 000 on these!

Please share to your friends and family! I just wanted to get this out there!

But don’t worry, I hope you still stick around. The next few posts will be more informative and instructional. 😉

]]>https://getpaidtoplay.today/i-hate-loot-boxes-and-you-should-too-heres-why/feed/8How to Make Money Playing Video Gameshttps://getpaidtoplay.today/how-to-make-money-playing-video-games/ https://getpaidtoplay.today/how-to-make-money-playing-video-games/#commentsThu, 17 Jan 2019 04:39:17 +0000I grew up on video games. I went through many stages of life thinking about what I wanted to do when I grew up, and that also included the elusive Astronaut job (which I quickly turned down after I found out that they drink their own pee (figuratively)). There was one thing that was constant though: I always wanted to make my job around video games. Well, my thought progress about jobs had always revolved around getting cool experiences.

Cool Experiences = something to talk about or to share

I went through thinking I could become an artist, a graphics designer, a programmer, a developer, a software engineer, a journalist… Lots of jobs to go through. My parents scoffed at the prospect of gaming as a career. But with the advent of the internet, I can now make video games an actual career.

Not sure what I mean? Let’s start by pressing A to the next topic.

Understanding Income

Wages, income, revenue streams are all words describing how someone can earn money. It can be simply be divided into two categories: passive and active.

Active income is the constant effort made to create something to bring you money. A very good example is our 9-5 job. You are constantly working in exchange for cash. You earn either a wage, or a salary depending on the work you do. This can be on a contract-by-contract basis, where you earn money for a task you complete. Or you can come in every day, work X amount of hours and you get paid by the hour. Both of these will outline how much you earn on your contract to your job.

Passive income requires an initial time or money investment. While it is popular, understand the fact that nothing can come to you for free, you need either one or the other or even both before you it can bring you consistent revenue. There’s even revenue streams that can even earn you money while you sleep! But again, you need blood, sweat and tears before you see something in return.

Before we start though, I must warn you that this requires a lot of hard work and investment. If this doesn’t turn well for you, you must always have a plan B. Don’t simply quit your job today just because you said you want to be a full-time YouTuber. If you are going to quit your job to fully commit to it, I highly suggest you have at least enough money in your bank to live off for a year or two.

Now let’s see how we can turn our favorite hobby into a side-hustle! (And eventually, our work!)

Active Streams

These streams require constant work. There are several ways of doing this.

Creating Art/Music/Story

Now I know these are all different methods, but no matter your discipline you follow, it is important to see that your favorite hobby actually helps you build your skills! I’m not talking just about improving your craft (writing skills, certain drawing techniques, new tech to make your jobs easier, etc.), you must be inspired and be up to date with the latest trends! A game can be inspiring by how the music sets the tone for a particular scene, or The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker’s cel-shading style has inspired a number of games with similar style. Chris Rockwood, from Hi-Rez Studios, states how important it is to keep up to date to a game’s development stage to see where you can contribute. Instead of playing mindlessly on your game, sit down and admire all the details, it can inspire you! Also, network with your fellow creators, they can get you a foot into the industry. But until then, you have to settle doing freelance jobs, networking on social media and getting your name out there before landing a job with your passion.

Streaming

Streaming, believe it or not, is a full-time job. If you want to earn money playing games live to a watching audience, you have to dedicate the time to do so. Surprisingly enough, those subscription numbers on Twitch by themselves are not enough to keep a streamer fed and happy. They also network a lot to garner those views and to get sponsorship from companies who love video games as much as you do who want some screen time with you. The good news is, it is pretty easy to get into streaming; you need a computer to output to your stream, internet and a game to play. Unfortunately, because of that, streaming is very saturated. You need to do something else to stand out or you won’t see a following.

Video Game Development

There are stages in the development of a video game, but most of the time it requires a lot of people to develop a game of all disciplines. Programmers and designers are needed to take a concept to reality. Marketers are needed to advertise and sell the game. These are all 9-5 jobs here and there are many positions in a company you can fill. It is highly recommended that you play games for not just product quality, but to keep up with the latest trends and to understand how your consumers react as well as testing the grounds for new niches for your game. Think of if this way; you are creating something for your customers to take. It’s just that this time you decided to follow your dream instead of deciding to be stuck in a rut.

Or, if you’re not so keen in being in a large game studio (more on that later), you can verge off on your own and become an independent developer. You are creating all aspects of the game. Story, setting, levels, interaction, music, and even art are all parts of your creation! This will take a ton of time, money and elbow grease to see your creation come to fruition. Then right after that, you also have to work to get your game out there for someone to see your game and even play it. Fortunately there are a lot of avenues for this, which includes the Google Play Store and iTunes Store for mobile developers and more famously, Steam for PC developers.

Video Game Tester

I didn’t know about this before, but there are development teams looking for testers all the time. They want you to play certain sequences over and over and in different ways so that they can see that their games work. Having a background in programming helps, but it isn’t really necessary. You are hired to play games and provide feedback for developers to follow up on so that they can deliver the best product possible.

Video Game Journalism

As a journalist, you cover the latest in video gaming. You also put out reviews for parts, accessories, and even games themselves. There’s also news coverage on aspects of the gaming communities, opinionated editorials and even news on development of games. One has to start networking in order to get the foot in the door. You also have to build up your portfolio as a writer, which includes freelance writing to other outlets.

Are you prepared for nights like this?

Professional Gaming

Do you want to compete with the best of the best a game has to offer? Better get really good. Professional gaming is on the rise with people tuning into world tournaments and leagues like League of Legends World Championships and Evolution Championship series (Or EVO, which is the world’s largest fighting game tournament). These people are the best of the best and they are often looking for the next fight. Of course, they are also sponsored by companies that come to these events too. Expect a lifestyle similar to that of a professional athlete; spend many hours getting good at a game.

Passive Streams

These are targeted towards creating valuable content such that lasts over a long time people will still come to view it. If people come to view it, there is potential in creating revenue. This requires a lot of time and money initially before you see any return from it.

Blogging

Blogging can be about anything! Even on the topics we have mentioned earlier. It is frankly easy to get in but hard to keep consistent. To start you need a hosting service (which does cost money if you want a better chance of being found and more control over your website) and dedication. It takes a while to get going, but creating content that others can read and find value will net you a business. This can then work on affiliate marketing to promote goods that you like to others and get a commission on it, or put advertisements about stuff that you like to have people click and you get paid for it.

YouTube Videos

Just like blogging, you can create videos on YouTube about anything! It can be a boon because a lot of people are visual learners. They like to see things and they click when they are interested. Just like blogging, you can sell through affiliate marketing or paid advertisements (Thanks to YouTube’s monetization method). However, be wary that you also need to be consistent in your uploads as well. Google’s algorithms want to keep checking that you are relevant and fresh and thus you need to consistently put up content for the search bots to keep finding you.

Creating Guides

People are consistently looking for guides for about anything. This includes getting good at your particular game. This can turn this into an eBook or a series of blog posts. Amazon provides an easy outlet to publish your eBook if you’re looking to get started. Either way, this can lead into a venture where you can actively help others by coaching.

The Mindset of Success

As I have mentioned before, it is important to have the right mindset. It takes a lot of hard work, dedication and even an initial investment in both time and money before you can reach a point you can be happy. It is the process of getting good that is the most rewarding. The journey is the most rewarding part, but hey the perks at the end isn’t so bad either!

It is most important that you have a plan before you try. Knowledge is power and it is key to success. It is also important to have something to fall back on when things get out of hand. Plan to be consistent; reaching success is a marathon, not a race. And finally my best advice to you is to get started; nothing won’t change unless you do something about it.

It isn’t waiting for you!

Have You Considered Gaming to be a Career?

What do you guys think? Do you think it’s still worth scoffing about? Share your comments below!